An Open Letter to Bill Keller, Executive Editor, New York Times, and Clark Hoyt, Public Editor, New York Times

Dear Bill Keller and Clark Hoyt – For the first time in the span of a generation, national health care reform is back on the horizon, and I’m writing to you to step back for a moment into the history of the Times’s reporting on health care reform. Last year I began a research project with two researchers from Harvard Medical School, Drs. David Himmelstein and Steffie Woolhandler, to look at the history of major state health reforms such as TennCare, the Oregon Health Plan, MinnesotaCare, and many others. A sweeping health reform bill had been passed into law in Massachusetts in 2006 that was being hailed as a unique, first-of-its-kind bipartisan strategy to achieve universal or near-universal health coverage without raising taxes or adding new regulations on the health care industry. We initially set out to find how unique the Massachusetts health reform law really was compared to previous state efforts, and to see if by analyzing the outcomes of those earlier reform efforts we could learn some lessons about what to expect in Massachusetts.

What we found surprised us (more…)

Diana Stein

Professor Emeritus, Mount Holyoke College

Massachusetts League of Women Voters Amherst Health Care Committee

Medicare, our own government health care system for those 65 and older was enacted in 1965 and signed into law by then President Lyndon Johnson on July 30th. The very first person to sign up for Medicare was former President Harry Truman! (more…)

Click here for link to original blog post by Roy Poses, MD.
From the Health Care Renewal blog.

In Time to Heal, Kenneth Ludmerer traced the evolution, if that is the right word, of the academic medical center from a relatively “flat” organization dedicated to service and academics to a large, complex quasi-corporation. Ludmerer wrote:

The new hospital administrators assumed business titles (president or chief executive officer rather than superintendent or director), demanded and received corporate levels of compensation, and retained hordes of management consultants…. A corporate approach began to dominate the institutional culture of the academic medical center…. It became increasingly difficult to distinguish some academic medical centers from the for-profit hospital chains and HMOs they so often criticized. (more…)

New ConCon thread: debate continues on other amendments (+)
David on BlueMassGroup (click here for link to original blog thread)
Tue Jan 02, 2007 at 17:34:14 PM EST

They have now started debate on a motion to discharge the health care amendment from committee, which is a necessary precursor to voting on it. A 2/3 vote will be required to do this. It’ll be a short debate. Tolman has argued in favor of discharge. Here comes Sen. Moore arguing against discharge. (more…)

Changes in Financial Burdens for Health Care: National Estimates for the Population Younger Than 65 Years, 1996 to 2003
Journal of American Medical Association (JAMA) 2006;296:2712-2719.
December 13, 2006

Jessica S. Banthin, PhD; Didem M. Bernard, PhD

Context: Policymakers as well as physicians need to understand how rapidly rising health care costs are affecting specific groups of patients.

Objective: To estimate the number and characteristics of individuals in the United States faced with very high financial burdens for health care. (more…)

Canadian Institute for Health Information
December 5, 2006
Health care spending to reach $148 billion this year

The public and private shares of total health care spending have
remained fairly steady over the past decade. This year, the public
share is expected to account for 70.3% of total health care spending,
in line with the 70/30 ratio of public/private spending seen over the
last ten years. (more…)

Chicago Tribune
October 31, 2006
Jury finds HMO bias in signing patients
Amerigroup shunned pregnant women, high-risk patients
By Rudolph Bush

A health maintenance organization hired by the government to provide coverage for the poor in Illinois will have to pay damages of $144 million for discriminating against pregnant women and other potentially high-risk patients, a federal jury in Chicago decided Monday.

After two days of deliberations, the jury found that Amerigroup Corp. and subsidiary Amerigroup Illinois sought to fatten their profits off Medicaid dollars paid into their plans by signing up healthy clients and intentionally avoiding those who had health issues. (more…)

The Commonwealth Fund Commission on a High Performance Health System
August 2006
Public Views on Shaping the Future of the U.S. Health System
By Cathy Schoen, Sabrina K. H. How, Ilana Weinbaum, John E. Craig, Jr., and Karen Davis

Abstract:

On behalf of The Commonwealth Fund Commission on a High Performance Health System, Harris Interactive surveyed U.S. adults to determine the public’s perspectives on ways to improve patient care and on health policy priorities facing the President and Congress. Overall, the representative sample of 1,023 adults ages 18 and older revealed strong public support for efforts to improve care coordination and access to information. There is a shared belief that expanded use of information technology, care teams, and improved delivery of preventive services could improve the quality of care. Patients reported recent experiences of wasteful, inefficient, or unsafe care. In addition, half of middle-income and lower-income families reported serious problems paying for care and insurance coverage. Three-quarters of all adults said the U.S. health care system needs either fundamental change or complete rebuilding. Expanding insurance and controlling costs, they said, should be top priorities for federal action. (more…)

United States Government Accountability Office (GAO)
July 2006
Mammography
Current Nationwide Capacity Is Adequate, but Access Problems May Exist in Certain Locations

Closures of certified mammography facilities outpaced openings during a recent 3-year period, and financial considerations were most often cited as the reason for facility closures.

Although key elements that make up mammography capacity have decreased and the use of screening mammography has grown, current nationwide capacity is adequate.

The loss or absence of machines in certain locations may have resulted in access problems, including problems for women who are medically underserved, such as those who have a low income or lack health insurance. (more…)

Health Care for Massachusetts Campaign
Email: mcarr@healthcareformass.org
Phone: 617-868-1280
Web: http://www.healthcareformass.org

Dear Advocate,

Yesterday afternoon the Legislature meeting in Constitutional Convention voted 118 to 76 (see the roll call) to send the Health Care Amendment to a special committee for study. The motion was sponsored by Senator Richard Moore (D-Uxbridge) who co-chairs the Joint Committee on Health Care Financing. (more…)